Getting an iOS app built: cost, timeline and what you arrange yourself

The short answer

Getting an iOS app built by a studio takes ten to twelve weeks from first flows to the App Store and starts at $7,000 with us for the build, with product design from $6,595 if the app still needs to be designed. The exact price depends on the number of screens, the integrations and whether a backend is needed. You arrange an Apple Developer account in your company’s name yourself; the team does the rest.

Should it be an app at all?

This is the question a good studio asks first. An app is the right choice when people use it often, when it needs something from the phone (camera, location, notifications, working offline, Apple Pay, HealthKit) or when it has to live on the home screen. An app is the wrong choice when people open it once a year, when every feature also works in a browser, or when the goal is mainly ‘being in the App Store’.

For that last group a good web app is better: no installation, no review process, directly findable in Google. We build both, so the advice doesn’t depend on what gets built afterwards. An initial product design of the key flows often makes that choice clear within a week.

Native, cross-platform or web: the choice that decides everything

We build iOS apps in SwiftUI. Not on principle, but because a native app feels faster on iPhone, needs less maintenance with every iOS update and has access to everything Apple releases. If Android comes later, you know that before the start and we account for it in the backend architecture, which is the same for both.

What getting an iOS app built costs

You’ll see prices from ‘from $2,000’ to ‘from $150,000’. Both can be true, because the word app can mean anything. These are the four things that determine the price:

1. 01The number of screens and flows. An app with login, a list, a detail page and settings is a different app from one with a booking flow, payments and a chat.
2. 02Integrations. Does the app need to talk to your CRM, accounting software, payments, an existing database? Every integration is work and testing.
3. 03Backend. Many apps need a server for accounts, data and notifications. We usually build it in Next.js or on a platform like Supabase, and it counts towards the price.
4. 04Design. Is there already a design and a brand, or does the app start from zero? Product design from flows to design system starts at $6,595 with us.

At Visinex you get a fixed price before kickoff. Custom development starts at $7,000; a complete iOS app with design and backend usually sits well above that. The principles and what is and isn’t included are on our pricing page. No hours billed afterwards, no surprises on the final invoice.

How long it takes and what happens in each phase

Most of our iOS apps reach the App Store in ten to twelve weeks. That isn’t an estimate but a schedule with fixed phases:

1. 01Weeks 1 and 2: flows and architecture. We sketch the key screens and decide what the app does locally and what the server does. This is where most of the ambiguity disappears.
2. 02Weeks 3 to 5: design and first build. The screens get their final form and the first version runs on your own phone via TestFlight. So you test from week five, not from week eleven.
3. 03Weeks 6 to 9: building and integrating. All flows, integrations and edge cases. A new TestFlight build every week.
4. 04Weeks 10 to 12: finishing and review. Accessibility, performance, the App Store page, screenshots and Apple’s review. That usually takes one to three days, but plan for a rejection and a second round.

What you arrange yourself

A studio can do almost everything, but three things have to be in your name. Arrange them before kickoff, because they take time:

• Apple Developer Program. An account in your company’s name, $99 a year. Apple verifies your company through a D-U-N-S number and that can take two weeks. The team joins your team, not the other way round.
• Service accounts. Hosting, database, push notifications, analytics, payments. All in your name, with the team as a collaborator.
• Legal. A privacy policy that matches what the app does, and for in-app payments Apple’s rules on commission. We help write it, but you sign it.

The choices that make the difference

The vast majority of apps are deleted within a month of installation. The apps that stay have three things in common: they do one thing very well, they work from the first second without explanation, and they feel like an iPhone app rather than a website in a frame. That last point is exactly why we build native and why design and build happen in the same team with us: the person who draws the flow also builds it. What that looks like is on iOS app development.